Aug 14 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bob Audette Brattleboro Reformer, Vt.

A handful of citizen groups and residents of Massachusetts and Vermont are urging the Bay State's attorney general to not give up on forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to change the way it evaluates the risks of spent fuel storage at Pilgrim, Indian Point and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants.

Earlier this month, the NRC denied a request by attorneys general from Massachusetts and New York that it consider changing its review methods.

"We hope that we can count on you to take this matter back to the First Circuit so that the NRC will finally be forced to address the significant public health and environmental risks posed by high-density pool storage of spent fuel at plants such as Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee," stated Deb Katz, spokeswoman for Citizen Awareness Network, which opposes the relicensing of Yankee.

The AGs submitted a rule-making petition to the NRC that would have altered the license renewal process to include site-specific reviews of spent fuel pools, the tanks of water inside reactor buildings where nuclear waste is stored. Currently, spent fuel pools are evaluated on a generic basis, meaning the assumptions about waste storage are common to many nuclear power plants, requiring no special reviews.

Many of the reactors in the United States have pools that are filling up rapidly. To meet the demand for more storage space, power plant operators are moving the oldest fuel out of pools and into dry casks. The federal government has promised to move the nation's nuclear waste to a repository, most likely Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which has been held up due to environmental concerns and opposition from residents of the Silver State.

At Vermont Yankee, technicians just finished moving about 100 tons of spent fuel from the pool to dry casks. Without the casks, Yankee would have had to shut down this year because its spent fuel pool would have been full.

The AGs argued the pools are reaching their capacity and previous studies of the dangers of storing nuclear waste didn't account for the increased amount building up at power plants.

Because of the added waste, the pools have a greater risk of catching fire and causing a catastrophic accident, they argued. The AGs also argued that since Sept. 11, nuclear power plants are considered terrorist targets and an aircraft flown headlong into a reactor could cause the spent fuel pool to burn.

The NRC didn't agree with the attorneys general.

Last week it concluded reactor buildings are strengthened structures that are not easily penetrated and security precautions taken after Sept. 11 by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security prevent aircraft from being hijacked and used as missiles.

Because of the work of a pair of federal legislators, the states might not have to take the issue to a federal court.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., are sponsoring the Nuclear Facility and Materials Security Act of 2008, which would require that the potential consequences of an act of terrorism be considered before a renewal or new license application can be approved.

Security precautions for spent fuel storage would be upgraded and any new reactors built in this country would need to be designed to withstand the impact of a large commercial aircraft.

In addition, the legislation would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a long-term plan to distribute potassium iodide pills to communities within 20 miles of a nuclear power plant. The legislation would also require that some radioactive materials, especially those that could be used to make a dirty bomb, be equipped with location tracking devices.

"Unlike the NRC, you, the attorneys general ... and Congressman Markey and Sen. Clinton understand that the NRC has ignored new and significant information regarding the severe consequences and environmental impacts of spent fuel pool accidents and the increased risks of such an accident," stated Katz. "Spent fuel pools like Pilgrim's and Vermont Yankees are especially vulnerable to attack because they are located in the attic of the reactor, outside primary containment with the thin roof overhead."

The signers encouraged the AGs to push ahead because "Your hearing request in the Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee cases constitutes the single most important opportunity to challenge the risks posed by these above-ground pools."

The undersigned included representatives from Pilgrim Watch, C-10 Research and Education Foundation, the Citizens Awareness Network, Cape Downwinders, Clean Water Action, the Toxics Action Center and the board of the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution.

Individuals who signed the letter included David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Paul Burns of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and Richard Clapp, a professor at Boston University's School of Public Health.

Arnie Gundersen, a member of the oversight panel of Vermont's independent review of Yankee, was another co-signer.

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.